anonymous

3 years ago

(-6) with exponent of 12 times (-6) with exponent of 5 times (-6) with exponent of 2?

Hi, welcome to openstudy:)
When you multiply a power with the same base, you just add the exponenets together.
In this case:
\[-6^{12} \times -6^5 \times -6^2\]
you would add 12 by 5 by 2:
\[(-6)^{12+5+2}\]
Can you do the rest from here?

Not really.
You would get \[(-6)^{19}\]
You see, it's okay if it's a negative, because all three of them are negative. They have to be exactly the same for you to be able to add the exponents like that :)
Does that help?

The parentheses just indicate that the negative is part of the 6, so that it isn't confused with a subtraction sign.
If one of the -6's was a 4, lets say \[(−6)^{12} × (−6)^{5} × (4)^2\]
Then it would be \[(−6)^{12+5} × (4)^2\] or just \[(−6)^{17} × (4)^2\]
To simplify further, you add the powers together and multiply the bases, so \[(−6)^{17} × (4)^2 = -24^{19} \]